“While a small number of children cannot be vaccinated due
to an underlying medical condition, we believe there should be no such thing as
a philosophical or personal belief exemption since everyone uses public
spaces,” Boxer and Feinstein wrote. “As we have learned in the past month,
parents who refuse to vaccinate their children not only put their own family at
risk, but they also endanger other families.”

We believe there should be no such thing as a philosophical or personal belief exemption since everyone uses public spaces.

“We are offering legislation that will abolish the personal
belief exemption that currently allows children who have not received
vaccinations needed to protect the public health to enroll in our schools,”
said co-author Richard Pan (D-Elk Grove) at a news conference. “As a
pediatrician, I have witnessed children suffering lifelong injury or death from
vaccine-preventable infection. This does not have to happen.”

Meanwhile, the University of California announced today that
beginning in 2017 all incoming students at its 10 campuses must be vaccinated
against measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, meningococcus, tetanus, and
whooping cough.

“If there is a good side to this current measles outbreak,
it is that it forces parents and lawmakers to take another look at the question
of vaccination and come up with better policies to protect our children,” said
Diane Peterson, associate director for immunization projects at the
Immunization Action Coalition. “We are seeing that letting kids go without
vaccines and depending on the herd to protect them doesn’t work.”

What The Current Laws Require

More than 100 people in 14 states and Mexico have contracted
measles in recent weeks. The outbreak began at two Disney resorts in Southern
California.

All 50 states require children attending public and private
schools to be vaccinated against measles and other diseases. All allow
exemptions for children who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. The most
common medical reasons are diseases such as HIV and cancer or drug treatments such
as high-dose steroids that weaken the immune system

Pan wants California to become the third state to require
all children be vaccinated unless they have a valid medical reason. According
to the NCSL, only Mississippi and West Virginia now have the strict medical exemption
policy.

The states with the toughest laws have the highest immunization rates. The higher the immunization rate, the better we protect infants and others who cannot be vaccinated.

Dr. James Cherry, University of California, Los Angeles

“This [California] proposal is terrific,” Dr. James Cherry,
a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles told
Healthline. “The states with the toughest laws have the highest immunization
rates. The higher the immunization rate, the better we protect infants and others
who cannot be vaccinated.”

For now, 48 states allow vaccination exemptions for
religious reasons. Twenty states allow exemptions for parents who object to
vaccination because of any personal beliefs.

In an email to Healthline, the California Department of
Public Health said about 0.5 percent of California kindergartners are not
vaccinated because of their parent’s religious beliefs.

Another 2.5 percent of kindergartners are not vaccinated
because parents used the personal belief exemption.

The personal belief exemption requires a health practitioner
to counsel parents about vaccination. The counseling requirement was added in
2013 in a bill authored by Pan, who was then a state assemblyman.

Cherry cautioned that some parents can, and do, ignore sound
medical advice. And the required counseling can be provided by doctors who
reject conventional medical treatments.

Vaccine Opponents Tend to Live in Clusters

The problem is children who are not vaccinated tend to live and
attend school in clusters. The result is that community immunity,
sometimes called herd immunity, breaks down. The lower the vaccination rate,
the quicker measles and other infectious diseases can spread.

A recent
analysis by the Los Angeles Times found that some Los Angeles preschool
centers have measles vaccination rates as low as 51 percent. Vaccination rates
were lower in private institutions and in higher income areas. Vaccination
rates were higher in public schools and in lower income areas.

Kaiser
Permanente found similar patterns in Northern California. Families with
children who are not vaccinated tend to cluster together.

School immunization reports showed that 87 percent of Los
Angeles-area preschoolers in private centers had all their required vaccines. Public
preschools had a 90 percent vaccination rate, and Head Start centers had a 96
percent vaccination rate.

Medical experts say at least 92 percent of children must be
immunized to keep diseases such as measles from spreading quickly. Children are
best protected if at least 95 percent of people are vaccinated.